Monthly Archives: March 2013

Okay, my back has been wonky the past two weeks, which has really slowed me down. All the driving around I’ve been doing has partly been because I just can’t lift and tote and move and hustle, my back is waking me up 3-6 times a night and keeping me awake. It hurts.

I’ve been trying to get back on track, but do it in such a way that it won’t stress my back. Difficult, but not impossible, especially if I ask for help.

Okay, we moved the adding machine and last typewriter into their final placements. I found a way to move around the husband’s stuff in a way that makes sense AND keeps them accessible. Yay!

Today I cleaned the fireman’s pole. I carefully took all the brass pieces off, polished them some (so you can tell they’re brass, but not so much that they’re shiny-new) and cleaned and oiled the pole. I did this very carefully. I put the screws in labeled sleeves, marked the bottom of the brass pieces and the pole as I took the thing apart so I could put it back together exactly the way it had been. I was scared I’d lose one of the screws or mix them up and it wouldn’t go back together correctly, but it did — and I didn’t lose any of the screws either!

Big difference from my usual previous approach, fairly sloppy and slapdash: partly because I didn’t want to be “seen” fussing over my stuff and partly because I was sure anyone else could do it easier, faster, and without all the fuss. Things have changed — no — I have changed!

Anyway, the pole is clean, but not mounted, sigh. I was hoping it would be this weekend.

It’s tempting to take down the old rack to feel like I’m making “progress,” but the only thing that would accomplish, aside from the emotional satisfaction of being one step closer, is to make a large mess I can’t clean. The coats, hats, gloves, etc. that live on the old/current rack would have nowhere to go, until the new rack is put up. I guess that’s another indicator that I’ve changed?

Last week I bought 3 porcelain light fixtures. I’ve used them all now too. I’ll post pictures after I get the fireman’s pole up!

This week has been super busy. The husband or I have had things going every day this week, not of course to mention work. I’ve been driving all over the world and gone, he rented a car due to his appointments, etc. We each had 2 doctor’s appointments, on different days of course. He had a three-day class in the local large town, etc. It has been nutty.

Last week I told the old antique store I’d be leaving there 4/30. I asked at the new place if I could rent a new booth for the merchandise. Yes, sure, but talk to us then and see what we’ve got available. Fine. The old booth is >$175/month, the new booth that I already have is just over $50. Cool! The possible new booth is just over $100. Great I’ll do it — except that the new mall charges in TWO WEEK increments, not by the month, so to compare actual numbers, the new booth is >$100 a month and the possible new booth would have been over $200. Hmm.

The idea was to save money. Obviously, this wasn’t the answer.

I went to the storage and paid the rent on the old unit, that’s > $100 too. Ouch! The manager at the storage and I talked about how someone who works there part time is involved with a cancer charity who put on a yard sale once a year, they may want some of my romances? I offered as many as they want. The really nice thing about this is that they rent a storage unit at this place to store the merchandise, so they’d come and get the boxes too. No hauling stuff across the country. Whoopee! The manager said she’s talk to the woman the next day. Cool!

Went up the street to the bookstore and offered the owner some very collectible paperbacks I’ve got. I’ve had them at the new booth and sold not one, so that seems to not be a good fit. The owner said to bring them, they’d put them out, and if nothing else, they’d probably sell at the 1/2 off sale, next month. Cool! Half is more than I was going to ask for most of them, wholesale. I’ll take it!

Then I went into a new to me country gifty/antique shop up the street. Ends up she also does flea markets in the summer and the price is VERY reasonable. Cool!

I go home that night just giddy about the opportunities that have fallen out of the sky. The world is coming up roses, etc. I did a lot of smiling.

In the next few days, reality hit, well sort of. The cancer charity doesn’t want my books darn it. The book store’s sale, which I thought started yesterday, starts in two weeks, the owner at the gift shop does have space for rent, but not the space she originally told me (which is prime) it’s another, which is really good, but not right by the front door.

However, I’ll be renting a new space 5/1 for <$100 a month at the gift shop. The new antique booth will stay the same. My shop rent will go from almost $300 (new and old booth rents) to just about half of that. And that’s still less than I’ve been paying at the old store. Yay!

At the same time, I also hope to be out of the old storage entirely by the end of April. Then I’ll only be in the new smaller and cheaper one. Again, the money saved isn’t huge, but it will be consistently less expenditure, every month.

Things are moving in the right direction, but not nearly fast enough for me!

Yesterday went as planned, except. Except? Yes. Except that I had two disasters.

The bookcase boxes, which I did start to fill were distinctly wobbly, and they shouldn’t have been. That required me to empty the boxes I’d filled, remove the boxes, etc. Figured out what the problem was and started reshelving the books, again.

I’d bought tshirts for the rug I’m making and had washed the last batch and they’d gone in the dryer. They were on top of the dryer. I grabbed the lot and started turning them into tshirt yarn. There was a yellowish-pale green one, didn’t remember buying it (the planned rug was originally blue, green & purple) but I’ve been thinking about doing a Roy G. Biv rug instead of just the three colors, so it was possible I’d bought this, I’ve been buying a lot of tshirts lately. Okay, take the hem off, turn it inside out.

Big WHOOPS!

This is one of the husband’s favorite shirts. Oh sh***t!

One of the few advantages of having “stuff” all over the place is that things get lost. I knew I could just ‘lose’ the shirt and he’d never know why or how it disappeared. I could even finish turning it into tshirt yarn and put it in the rug; he’d never know. That wouldn’t be nice, wasn’t ethical, and isn’t who I want to be at all. But he is not going to be happy. What to do?

I can’t just sew the hem strip back on, he’d definitely notice that, and I know he wouldn’t like it. I wadded the shirt up, stuffed it in a corner of my office and walked away. I was furious with myself for not turning ALL the shirts right side out before I started cutting. I was irritated with him for putting his shirt in with my craft shirts on top of the dryer, but I saw this as the wimp-out position it was. This was my fault, I had been the person with the scissors.

I started working on the office clean up. I washed the dishes. I started the apple butter. In short, I did anything other than work on the rug. I left the problem on the back burner internally for a few hours.

Finally, the answer came to me. I could take it to the local seamstress and get a new hem put on. I confessed my misdeed last night, but also said I’d take it to the seamstress today for a new hem. It’ll be shorter, but other than that, it should still be okay.

Years ago, someone told me that on average she’s embarrassed once daily. Internally, I’ve expanded that to I have to deal with one nasty (usually cleaning) thing a day. Yesterday, it was a nasty emotional thing. I’d prefer to clean almost anything rather than what I did yesterday. Clean the cat box? You bet, thanks for the opportunity!

I haven’t paid much attention to the tally. Been too busy moving things around and trying to get the 2 booths and the 2 storage units consolidated. I’ve gotten rid of another 750+ items! Much of that again is shelving books that were already here, but it counts!

Took the Victorian kid’s desk to the booth yesterday. On the one hand, I’d love the money if it sells, but I really like the piece. However, since it came home from the first booth, it’s sat atop a low bookcase in the kitchen. Obviously, we’re not using it. These days, that means it goes or gets slated t0 go. I have great affection for this particular piece, but I have a great affection for a lot of pieces, and we just don’t have room for all of them!

As little as I did yesterday, I messed up my back. I thought maybe I’d put all the weight back on that I’d lost with my bout of e coli? Not so — apparently I moved wrong.

I’m not surprised, I was in a hurry and was handling boxes of hardcovers. I did think about it, of course.Yesterday I also took the desk into the booth, it isn’t heavy, but awkward. I’m paying for whatever I did in lost sleep. Aging, as my husband says, is NOT for sissies!

My back has altered my plans for today. I’d intended to work on the new arrangment in my office and shelving the loose books in the living room. The office probably will get the attention, I don’t think I’m up to hauling books and squeezing into tight corners to get them on a shelf. I’ll be happy to have no stray stacks of books in the living room, but . . . . I’ll catalog some stuff and the dump is tomorrow, so I can find donations for the swap shop too.

Last week I asked my husband to get me the contact info for a local charity that does pickups. The only way I’m going to empty the old storage and FIT into the new one is if we get rid of a large lump o’ stuff. I started planning for this yesterday in the old storage, although I haven’t actually started segregating items for this donation, yet. It will come!

When I moved the bookcase boxes and replaced them with the wrought iron table, the hook rack above the table/bookcase boxes remained on the wall but now it looked funny.

Yesterday I pondered this and realized I still wanted a rack there, but wanted something that filled the space entirely — and I had the perfect solution, maybe?

One of the crazy things I bought at auction: a section of a vintage hanging rack from a fire department. Has a straight up peg on top, a mustache-shaped double hook below. I took one double hook off yesterday and gave it a quick cleaning. It seems the hooks are solid brass, so they should all clean up nicely. We can attach the bar to the wall with bannister rail hardware. Three things have to happen: the brass pieces need to be cleaned, as does the wood. The wood then should be varnished/verathaned (or whatever), we have to decide which hardware we want, then buy & install it. Good bannister mounts are $20+ each, we need at least two.

We decided after looking and talking about it this a.m. that the fireman’s pole (for lack of another short way to describe it) should replace the reproduced train luggage rack we now use as a coat rack. (It’s always full!)

Now, above the table is the “best” photo DH has done, which looks like it was taken in the gaslight era, but wasn’t. I took down the hook rack and swapped a clock & the photograph — which works. I added a few gardening books (everything needs a few books — don’t you know?) And so for the moment, this is done.

We’ll buy the mounts for the fireman’s pole and put that up sometime in the near future. It will displace the luggage rack, and that will get sold? Put elsewhere? Or? And the other hook rack — where will it go?

to this: the place where I exercise is “intimate” that is, you’re in a small pool with others, and in the therapy pool it’s mostly people just standing and doing resistance stuff. I end up feeling like I have to talk, that is my PTSD and insecurity kick in. It’s not completely appr0priate, it makes me appear (and feel) insecure, awkward, and socially inept, and yet I can’t seem to stop. I’ve been doing this for months. I suppose one solution is to try and go when no one is there, swim for about 30 minutes real hard and get out. I stopped trying to use the exercise floor, I couldn’t get past the “open” files, where anyone can pull your file, where everyone can see you. I felt real exposed. I either need to find an emotional solution to this or change exercise facilities.

Sometimes being me is a pain in the behind! I’ve been doing this off & on for months. I get away from there, realize I’ve done this yet again — resolve to do better, and don’t.

That particular move has been on the “to do” list since we got the table, over 1.5 years ago (I think). Anyway, two days ago, I looked at the living room and “saw” how I could move the table away from its Landing Pad, right inside the front door.

Also know the next piece: I have a wrought iron table that’s holding old machinery: typewriters, adding machines, like that. Assuming my guesstimate is accurate, the box/bookcase next to the front door that was hidden behind the new graphics table will be moved to behind the graphics table across the room. The wrought iron table and its load of HEAVY stuff will replace the bookcase boxes. I don’t want to move the wrought iron table again while we’re getting the room done. I’ve moved it twice now in two weeks. Time to use more brain and less brawn!

That particular move will take me a few hours, although involved it isn’t complicated or (except for moving the wrought iron) difficult.

In the midst of moving things around, I “lost” one of my good winter gloves. It’s here, somewhere, just not sure where? But I found a Christmas card for a neighbor I didn’t realize hadn’t gotten it. Fortunately, the woman and her kids were taking a walk so I gave it to her. Three months late? Oh well, it was supposed to be part of the cookie dough/ganache and bread with crock gift that I gave to my best neighbors for Christmas. I also found an old wallet I’d used last year for coupons, many of which were out of date.

I have a batch of books to catalog this a.m., then I’m off to the old antique store. I’ll pull books from there, and put them aside to donate tomorrow to a library book sale.

I have 30 boxes of “stuff” to go through in the living room, maybe more? (If so,I don’t want to think about it!) But the room, after the table move, is as done as it can be until we just get rid of more boxes. As tired as I am of cataloging stuff, it’s got to be done.

Tomorrow I’ll also go to the new antique booth and the storage. I have things to add to the new booth and we’ll see how the ladder/flower pots “spring” display I put up last week worked? Hopefully, everything sold!

One set o’ stuff in the living room is our old LPs, I had put out a few 3 weeks ago in the new booth. Sold 25% of them. Took the rest to a thrift shop, so they’re gone. I’ll restock them in the new booth and maybe put some in the old booth today as well.

I need to figure out what to do for dinner? I’ll probably pull some chicken or pork chops out of the freezer and make whatever strikes my fancy when I get home.

I got apples to make into apple butter, 3 lb bags were on sale, and since I could get something other than Red Delicious (boring) I bought two: Golden Delicious & Fuji. Should be great! I’ve learned not to start apple butter even in a crock pot and go away — it goes from cooked to burnt quickly!